Marina man arrested by FBI faces child-porn charges in New York

Marina >> A Marina man arrested by FBI agents faces child pornography charges in New York state for alleged explicit videos he recorded last year with two teenage girls and a 9-year-old girl.

Dennis Whitt, 40, a service manager for a Monterey delivery company, was arrested Wednesday morning at his Clark Circle residence by federal agents on a warrant issued by a federal judge in Syracuse, New York.

He made an initial appearance Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, but remains in custody pending transfer to New York by the U.S. Marshals Service, said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Duncan in Syracuse.

A court date hasn't yet been scheduled in New York state because of pending grand jury action, the prosecutor said Thursday.

The case against Whitt, whose postings on social media indicate an interest in fantasy and science fiction games and films, began last September, according to an FBI agent's affidavit in support of his arrest.

That's when a New York state investigator was told by a father that his 15-year-old daughter and her 16-year-old friend had been involved in sexual "video chats on the internet" with an adult male.

The girl's Skype chat logs showed the two teenagers and a 9-year-old girl met a California man on a website used to chat with strangers. The man's user profile identified him as "Lucas," and he told them he was 16. The girls were visible to the man using a webcam on the 16-year-old girl's computer, the affidavit said. But Lucas' account showed only a skull-and-crossbones symbol.

They had frequent chats, which involved games in which the girls earned points by blowing kisses and waving, but progressed to increasingly explicit sexual activity, the affidavit said.

The New York state computer crimes unit traced "Lucas" to Whitt through various online records that used account names including "Vampirategod" and "vampirestray" and devices registered to the Marina resident, the affidavit said.

During Wednesday's search of Whitt's home, he talked with an FBI agent and "admitted that he met girls online and engaged in sexually explicit chat with them," the affidavit said.

Whitt saved videos of sex acts performed by the girls at his instruction to an external hard drive in his home office, the affidavit said.

Investigators recovered 48 video files and 20 image files of the three girls from a folder on his computer labeled "My Girls." They were created between July 25 and Sept. 16, the affidavit said.

Whitt was being held on a single count of producing child pornography, but the charges could change, Duncan said. The maximum penalty for the lone charge already against him would be 15 years in prison, he said.